Laziness

The following is actually a re-post of a note I wrote on Facebook in August 2009. Now that I have a real blog, I thought I’d re-post it here.

This morning’s message at the Ames E-Free church was about laziness. Pastor David Staff has been preaching a series of messages out of Proverbs, and this one came at a great time for me.

First though, notes from the sermon are available. Scroll to the bottom and search for “Proverbs about WORK – A Call to Diligence” and click the icon that looks like a sheet of paper. In the zip file that downloads, the file name that starts “Got Wisdom #8…” is probably the note sheet you’d want to read (either PDF or Word format, they’re identical). That page also has an MP3 as well as video of the sermon.

In the notes, it lists how Proverbs describes a sluggard:

• He doesn’t get out of bed (Prov 6:9)
  Almost every day this week, my alarm rang at 6:30 or 7:30. Not once did I start my day at that time.
• He is physically out of shape (Prov 19:24)
  I was going to go running every other day right when I got up. I didn’t get up, and therefore didn’t run.
• He life is cluttered with cumbersome junk (Prov 15:19)
• He is self-deceived (it’s almost impossible to correct him) (Prov 26:16)
• He can’t be trusted when sent on an errand (Prov 10:26)
• He typically spends his time on empty pursuits (Prov 12:11, 28:19)
  I wasted a lot of time surfing the web this week, most of which wasn’t beneficial.
• He refuses to work hard (Prov 21:25)
  While doing homework, I divided my attention between it and a movie quite a bit, or I’d take a “short” break to check Facebook or Twitter. That decreased my productivity by a lot.
• He has irrational excuses why he won’t go out and try (Prov 26:13)
• He’s always short on what he needs (Prov 19:15, 21:26, 24:33-34)
• He talks a lot, but little happens (Prov 14:23)
  I had big plans for a very productive week, but I didn’t follow through.
• He is actually destroying himself (Prov 21:25, 28:9)

His notes continue:

Let me be frank. Whether you’re a student doing your homework, or an employee doing the company’s work, or a wife doing the housework, or a … If you have a problem with laziness – if you find yourself described in the sluggard, you are living out a habit which dishonors God and will severely disadvantage your life. And therefore, it is time to come to a crossroads of honesty with yourself…and begin a process of change in response to God.

So…how does that process of change happen? It starts with agreeing that laziness is not only unwise, it is sin. It is an offense to the character of God who made you in His image and designed you to be created and work diligently and use all your endowed giftedness to be productive. Laziness is sin.

This message was timely for me because I just finished my first week back at school. If I were to grade the effort I put into this week, I’d give myself somewhere around 65%. Yeah. I can’t afford to have a semester where I put in 65% effort. I did that last year and my GPA reflects it, and I have to pay the price for the bad GPA. I got an e-mail this week about an position on campus I had been nominated for. I was pretty stoked, ’til I read the application requirements: 2.5 GPA or higher. Guess who has an embarrassing 2.3?

If I run this whole semester at 65% effort, when they post grades on Christmas Eve, I won’t be happy. I won’t be proud of my work. I’ll kick myself for the third crummy semester when I didn’t fulfill my God-given potential. Let me ask you, since a lot of you are probably back in school: How would you grade the effort you put in this week? Maybe you’re older, working a full-time job. How was the effort you put in at work this week? Don’t answer, but think about it. [Editor's Note: I earned a 2.49 GPA in the semester I talked about here. Largely in part because I gave up on Calc 2, because it was too hard, because I didn't put in the effort to do the homework.]

I’m lazy, and that’s a sin.

I heard a quote recently, “First, you make your habits. Then your habits make you.” If you build up positive habits like getting up early and studying hard, those habits will work to positively build you up. But if you’re like me and you’ve built in a pattern of habits that maybe aren’t… quite so… positive, you’ve gotta change. I have to change those habits, and that starts by trying again next week and focusing on the areas where I fell short this week.

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. (Colossians 3:23-24 NIV)

Question: Last week, did you use the time you were given to the best of your ability? This week, what are you going to do differently?